Phantom of Justice
by SwissPhan18
Summary: After losing his Family and Friends, Danny has to try and move on for the sake of the future. After getting blamed for his loved ones' deaths, he arrives at Happy Harbor, to start over and end his hero-days. However, old scars are teared open, when a team of superheroes arrive in Happy Harbor. Will Danny be able to stay hidden and away from hero-stuff?
1. Loss and Arrival in Happy Harbor

AMITY PARK, ILLINOIS

September 16, 2005, 17:12 CT

Danny's POV:

"Nooooooooooooooo!" I screamed as I tripped and fell to the ground.

I had sealed Dan within my thermos only to then run towards the Nasty Burger, where Mom, Dad, Jazz, Sam and Tucker and Mr. Lancer were tied to a container filled with Nasty Sauce, which, as I fell to the ground and as I looked at the container and them with sweat running down my face, exploded seconds later and caused me to be thrown back a couple of meters.

After about 30 minutes, I regained my conscience. I went over to the site of the explosion. I soon wished I hadn't done that: There were pieces of human flesh, blood and clothing scattered around the debris, in which place the Nasty Burger had stood not even an hour ago. The image would haunt my mind for years to come. Meanwhile, a lot of people had gathered around the site of the explosion and the police-forces began securing the area. I quickly went intangible and slipped away through the ground. The last thing I wanted after what had just happened was to be questioned by the police.

When I got home, I simply collapsed on my bed and started crying.

* * *

After my initial shock and trembling, I went to the ghost-zone to find Clockwork. Even though he had attacked me earlier with the intent to eliminate my future. Though you couldn't really blame him, now could you?

I eventually found Clockwork's lair. Since it was in a part of the ghost-zone I'd never been to before, it took me at least a couple of hours. I went inside, ready to plead him to change my fate. I confronted him right away:

"Clockwork, since you're the spirit of time, you surely know the horrible thing that happened to me". I spoke with lowered head and with a sad look on my face, which of course didn't go unnoticed.

He nodded in agreement.

"Is there any chance of changing my fate, the fate of my friends and family?" I asked with a feeling of sadness and hopelessness clearly glaring from my eyes. Deep inside I knew what his answer would be.

"No, I am sorry." He said, changing into his older form, while he shook his head. "The time-stream has already been altered too much. The Observant High Council decided, that I am not allowed to interfere, as much as I would want to. What happened is absolute." He stated with a determined, yet sad look on his face.

"However, your future is _not_ carved in stone!" Clockwork said to me, as I was already about to turn around and leave. He changed into his younger form and continued: "You, and only you, can shape your own destiny. You have to try to move on, live a normal life again, so you don't turn into Dan!"

I snapped. "I-I just lost my loved-ones! How could I possibly move on like that?!" I said with my eyes flaringly glowing green in anger and with gritted teeth.

Clockwork sighed and said: "Look, I know I am expecting much of you, but you cannot live on like this. You have to try and fix everything on your own, _because_ if you don't, your sadness and depression will consume you; you will turn into Dan!

I trembled from his statement. Was I really going to become Dan? Would I really not be able to keep my promise I had made to my loved-ones, if I didn't move on? I couldn't just move on. Too much had they meant to me. Too many times had I saved them and risked my life for them. I couldn't just move on. Not like this. Streams of tears started to flow over my eyes. I cried out everything; my pain, my feeling of hopelessness and my anger towards Dan and the entire situation I was in.

Clockwork patted me on the shoulder and said: "I wish I could help you, I wish there was a way to lessen your pain, but sadly there isn't. Again, I am sorry".

I tried to calm down, but the pain was just too much. I continued to cry for about half an hour. When I was finally able to stop crying, I decided to leave; I had tried my last chance to bring them back. I left the thermos that contained Dan inside with Clockwork and told him to guard it with his afterlife. He wished me good luck and said goodbye. I flew out of his lair towards the Fenton Portal, which I then closed permanently, after I had slipped through it.

* * *

After I had lost everyone I ever cared about, I made a decision to leave everything behind: My not-so-successful superhero career, my town, the townspeople who never appreciated my heroic acts and also my bad memories, or at least I had hoped back then that it would be as easy as that.

My only drive was now to keep my promise I had made to my family: To _never_ ever turn into Dan. I decided to leave Amity for good and to never come back, mainly because in order to keep the promise I made, the best possible way to do that, was to stay as far away from Vlad as possible.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the GIW-agents were chasing after me, since obviously they, along with everyone else, of course blamed Phantom for the accident and the death of my friends and family. I heard them talking about Phantom or "Inviso-Bill", as some of them still called me, in a manner that made the pain in my heart even more permanent and hard to bare. I was only 14, and yet I had to go through so much already. It was the final straw, which eventually fully convinced me to leave Amity Park.

After I had left Amity Park, I went from town to town, all around the country. One would probably be impressed by the distance I had covered, though of course they wouldn't know about my ghost-powers, now would they? About 4 years after I had left Amity Park, I arrived at Happy Harbor, a small municipality in the state of Rhode Island, which looked promising. It had a bookstore that I soon started working in, it seemed pretty safe from Vlad or the GIW and it was remote enough that no one would find me there, yet if they did, the municipality would be big enough for me to blend in with the crowd.

* * *

HAPPY HARBOR

July 18, 2010, 12:00 EDT

No one's POV:

10 months had passed since then. Danny had now a steady job at a bookstore he could at least somewhat enjoy and enough money to pay a room in a hotel on the other side of Happy Harbor. While his physical state had much improved since he had been on the run from the GIW for over a year, his mental state is still dominated by the loss of his family, the fight with Dan, the future that could still await him and a general feeling of depression.

Danny also soon realized, that the city was protected by The Team, a group of superheroes consisting of former Justice League members' sidekicks and a few heroes of unknown origin, who had made the nearby mountain into their HQ. But Danny didn't really care. To him, they were just a bunch of kids who tried to play heroes.

 _Sort of like I did, I suppose._ Danny thought to himself and sighed.

Danny was preparing for his lunch break: He closed up the bookshop and waited at the nearby bus stop for his ride home. The bus was already 3 minutes late, when the all too familiar sound of explosions caught his attention.

* * *

The Team had headed out on patrol of Happy Harbor with the Martian Bio-Ship, which Megan had shown them only shortly prior. Superboy was still angry at Megan, who had used her telepathy on him earlier that morning, since this way of communicating was common on Mars, not expecting that everyone, especially Superboy, would see it as an invasion of their privacy.

Red Tornado then informed them via the communication system of the bio-ship, that there was an incident at the Happy Harbor power plant. Megan steered the ship towards the location of the power plant.

Suddenly the Bio-Ship was hit by two giant tornados. The ship was shaken around, making all of the team members feel uncomfortable, to say the least. After some struggling, Megan managed to stabilize the Bio-Ship and maneuver it out of the tornado and land it a little away from the tornado.

The members of The Team then all jumped out of the Bio-Ship, ready to take on whoever had caused this much havoc.

The tornado now moved towards the power plant, causing panic and chaos among the people, who had parked their cars outside and just stood there, before they could realize the danger they were in.

"Robin, our tornado's coming to New England! Robin?!" Kaldur quickly shouted, but Robin was nowhere to be found.

They heard Robin laughing happily from an unknown location, wondering where he could've gone.

"He was just here!" Megan exclaimed.

They all stopped wondering where the Boy Wonder had disappeared to, when they heard explosions coming from inside the power plant. All the windows cracked open and smoke escaped from them.

Inside was the cause of the tornados and the chaos, a villain with a robotic look, similar to Red Tornado, though appearing much more determined and menacing.

Robin was already inside the building, fighting him. But the villain threw Robin back into a wall with a tornado attack.

Kaldur, Wally, Megan and Superboy now jumped into the fight as well as Robin was still lying on the floor.

"Who's your new friend?" Superboy asked Robin, half-ignoring, be it because he wanted to pay attention to the upcoming fight or because he had ran ahead of his team mates.

"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kind of rough!" Robin answered as the villain prepared to strike again.

 _"_ _My apologies. You may address me as Mister Twister."_ Mister Twister said in his deep robotic voice as he attacked again with his tornado, sending it towards Superboy, who was struggling to stand his ground against the strong winds.

Mister Twister repeated his attack and trapped Superboy in a tornado, which then spat him out just as violently, throwing him into a wall, just like Robin before him.

The Team regrouped and exchanged eye glances, to make sure the next attack would be more coordinated.

Wally quickly put on his speedster-glasses and started to run towards Mister Twister. He jumped and prepared to do a high-speed kick, aiming at his chest. But Mister Twister formed another tornado and redirected Wally's kick and sent him out of the building through the window, where he bumped a couple of times on the ground before coming to a hurtful landing.

Next to attack were Kaldur and Megan. But they awaited a similar fate as they were thrown back by Mister Twister's tornados.

 _"_ _I was prepared to be challenged by a_ superhero _. I was not, however, expecting children."_ Mister Twister said mockingly

Robin grit his teeth, threw two batarangs at him and yelled: "We're not children!"

Mister Twister met the attack with ease, using the tornados to stop one batarang and protect himself from the explosion, and after the other one of the batarangs actually hit its target, he simply flipped it away with one finger, before it could detonate.

 _"_ _Objectively, you are."_ Mister Twister countered Robin's statement and went on: _"Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quite_ disturbing!"

"Well, we'd hate to see you disturbed. Let's see if you're more _turbed_ , once we kick your can!" Robin shouted.

Miss Martian attacked now by breaking the bottom of a container. Steam erupted on Mister Twister, but the attack showed no effect.

Superboy attacked again, but was stopped by Mister Twister in mid-air and was sent flying into Miss Martian, which caused both of them to crush into the wall, and the floor afterwards.

Now both the Boy Wonder and Aqualad attacked simultaneously, but each one of them were sucked into a tornado and sent flying, crushing into each other.

 _"_ _Indeed, that was quite 'turbing'. Thank you!"_ With that, he flew off and left the building, as each member was lying temporarily unconscious on the floor.

Kid Flash was rubbing his sore neck, as he slowly recovered from his unpleasant landing. Just in time to see Mister Twister leaving the factory.

He started to run and prevented him from leaving the battlefield just yet.

"What have you done to my team?!" Kid Flash asked accusingly.

 _"_ _Embarrassed them, largely!"_ He replied and sent another attack towards Kid Flash, who was sent flying as well.

But before the tornado would've made him crush into a wall, he was saved by Miss Martian.

"I got you, Wally" She said as she held him in place mid-air with her powers, until the tornado disappeared.

"Whoa, thanks!" Wally replied, as he was placed back on the ground gently.

 _"_ _I thought you would've_ all _learned your limitations by now."_ Mister Twister stated.

"What do you want?!" Aqualad asked.

 _"_ _Isn't it obvious?_ He asked in return as he floated off the ground. _"I'm waiting for a real hero!"_ He added.

"Read his mind, find a weakness!" Aqualad said to Miss Martian.

"But I thought I wasn't supposed to do that." Miss Martian argued.

"It's okay with the bad guys!" Robin insisted.

Miss Martian tried to read Mister Twister's mind, but she was unable to.

"Nothing, I'm getting nothing!" Miss Martian stated as realization suddenly struck her. "Hello, Megan!" She said as she put her hand on her head.

"Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise. He's inorganic; an android. And how many androids do you know, that can generate tornadoes?!" Megan said in realization.

"Red Tornado sent us here!" Aqualad said after the same thought hit him.

"…After saying we'd be tested soon enough. This is his test, something to keep us busy!" Robin added to Aqualad's statement.

"Speedy called it, we're a joke!" Kid Flash said with lowered head.

Aqualad clenched his fist angrily, as he and Robin turned towards, who they thought was Red Tornado.

"This game, _so_ over!" Kid Flash said as he walked up to Mister Twister with Robin and Aqualad.

Robin then confronted Mister Twister: "We know who you are and what you want!"

"So let's end this!" Aqualad stated.

 _"_ _You consider it ended?!"_ Mister Twister replied as he stretched his arms towards the sky and unleashed two tornados from his hands into the clouds.

"Impressive show. But we will not indulge you, we will not engage!" Aqualad shouted as the sky darkened and the wind created by Mister Twister became stronger and stronger. Soon, lightning was created by the dark storm clouds above Mister Twister.

"Uh, can Red Tornado do that?" Kid Flash asked the moment he saw the lightning.

 _"_ _You think I'm Tornado?! Ironic."_ Mister Twister stated, while he was releasing the energy he had built up with his tornados, on The Team.

The Team was struck back, as lightning hit the ground in front of them. All of them went unconscious, except for Superboy, who got rid of his burred and torn jacket and then super-jumped, in another attempt to attack Mister Twister, towards him, only to be thrown back and electrocuted by lightning. He fell to the ground and sled across it from the sheer power of Twister's attack. The entire team was now lying unconscious and helpless on the ground. Mister Twister was now charging up more electricity to end the existence of The Team once and for all, now that he had the chance to and before they might grow stronger and one day actually oppose a threat. Just as he was about to strike, out of nowhere, a green ray was fired at him, his left arm suddenly froze, and he was thrown to the ground.

 _"_ _What the hell was that?!"_ Mister Twister exclaimed as he slowly stood up back up to see who had dared to interfere with his battle.

 _Who- or whatever you are, show yourself!"_ Mister Twister turned to where he assumed the unknown intervener to be. He was distracted for a minute. Enough time for our unknown hero to bring the team into safety, away from the factory, where he sat them down on a nearby meadow.

When Mister Twister realized that this somebody wouldn't respond, he turned around to see Robin, Superboy, Miss Martian, Kid Flash and Aqualad had successfully escaped or were brought to safety. For him however, it didn't matter for long: Mister Twister came here to battle a real hero, not children.

* * *

After the team was brought into safety, they woke up and recovered quickly, in fact fast enough to see Mister Twister flying off.

"Ugh, what just happened? And how did we get here?" Robin groaned while he stood up and rubbed his sore head.

"I felt someone carrying us here. But right now, we should focus on Mister Twister, now that we know he _isn't_ Red Tornado." Aqualad pointed out.

"Ugh, ugh, and the fact that we survived is supposed to make it right?!" Superboy accused after crushing a junk of rock in anger. "She tricked us into thinking Mister Twister was Red Tornado!" He added furiously.

"She didn't do it on purpose!" Aqualad answered.

"I-it was a rookie mistake. We shouldn't have listened." Robin added.

"You _are_ pretty inexperienced. Hit the showers, we'll take it from here!" Kid Flash said to Megan.

"So, stay out of our way!" Superboy said angrily. With that, he, Robin and Kid Flash left for the city, to face Mister Twister once more.

"I was just trying to be part of the team…" Megan stated with a lowered head.

"To be honest, I'm not sure we really have a team." Aqualad replied. He then started running off to join the rest of the team. Megan was kneeling on the grass, sobbingly regretting her false conclusion.


	2. Old habits die hard

Danny's POV:

After I had heard an explosion, I sighed slightly and headed into a dark alleyway and went ghost. I hadn't done that in 10 months. It felt good to feel the blue rings washing over my body, changing me into Phantom. My ghost form had changed slightly just as my human half had changed. I had grown more muscular from being on the run from the GIW and Vlad, I had grown a beard and my hair was slightly longer than it used to be.

My powers had grown over the years as well: I could now successfully duplicate myself by a factor of 10, meaning I could duplicate myself 9 times, so there'd be up to 10 Dannys in a fight. I had developed Ice Powers as well and had perfected them over the years: I could cover my opponents in an up to 2-meter thick layer of ice and form swords and other weapons out of my ice. My Ghostly Wail didn't drain me as much as it used to and I could use it five times now, _without_ passing out. My newest power however, telekinesis, still had some bugs to work out: I could only lift a chair- or metal pipe-sized object if I concentrated on it hard enough, and once it was in the air, it was impossible for me to control it.

 _Sigh, sometimes it would be nice to have a teacher, someone who could teach and help me with perfecting my telekinesis._ I thought.

Clockwork also told me, that I would also maybe be able to teleport sometime in the future. But so far, nothing had happened, that would indicate that I had this power or that I would gain it anytime soon.

I flew towards the sound of the explosion, phased inside the building and stayed invisible, only to see a robotic-looking guy standing there, fighting a young teenager that had black hair similar to mine and black sunglasses. He got knocked against a wall, after which apparently his friends joined in on the fight. I figured it was best not to intervene just yet, as I realized that in front of where I floated invisibly stood none other than the members of "The Team", a group of former superhero-sidekicks, who had just turned the nearby mountains into their HQ.

Of course the public wasn't supposed to know about their secret HQ on Mount Justice, but with multiple members of the Justice League all being present in one location, in addition to the common rumors in Happy Harbor, it wasn't that hard to find out. Not that my daily jogging walks in the forest right next to Mount Justice would not have helped to know this as well.

I decided to only _watch_ the fight for now, as my time as hero was over and I figured to leave the fight to whom it belonged, as it would also function as a first test for the new heroes, since if they did well, I would never have to play hero again. Though of course I was very skeptic about them. They surely had power, but their enemy appeared to be very strong.

* * *

My assumptions were proven right: The members of The Team were beaten, humiliated almost. After they were beaten inside the building and once more outside of it, they fell unconscious and the villain, who thanks to typical villain-behavior had revealed his name was Mister Twister, was about to annihilate the members of The Team.

He charged up his powers, and I decided to jump into action: I blasted him, froze his left arm and punched him afterwards, causing him to be thrown to the ground, all while maintaining my invisibility.

I then picked up all of the teenagers, flew them away from the power plant and put them down on a nearby meadow. I quickly checked on all of them; they were all going to be fine. A few bruises and scars; that was all that was going to stay. Afterwards, I looked at the clock, only to realize, that my lunch break was almost over. I quickly left. I figured that they would be able to stop Mister Twister, once they were to get back up on their feet and plan their second chance at destroying the android. From my own experience, a second chance was usually all that was needed for a superhero, probably especially so for a team of superheroes, to defeat their foe, since they would probably do things differently this time.

* * *

I got to the bookshop just in time. I worked down my shift for another 4 hours, until it was 5 o'clock. I closed up the shop, took a bus to my hotel and went to room. After I got inside, I rested for a little while on my bed. It had been a long day, and also probably the weirdest day, ever since I had left Amity Park. My thoughts shifted over to the team of heroes. _Had they defeated Mister Twister? Had they worked out how to be a team?_

I switched on the TV, where at that moment the News Broadcast was showing some footage of Mister Twister wreaking havoc and later switching over to a reporter, who broadcasted from a place with lots of rubble lying around, which I realized clearly belonged to Mister Twister; which meant the heroes had succeeded, just as I had figured.

Later on, when I was eating dinner down in the hotel's restaurant, I once again thought about the team of superheroes. I was still a little angry with myself. I had sworn to leave my hero-career behind. And now only the sound of an explosion triggered my hero-complex to act up again. Though maybe I didn't do it because I felt like I had to, but because I wanted to help The Team. The members of The Team kind of reminded me of myself in my hero-days after all, yet at the same time, I thought that they didn't know _anything_ about what it meant to be a hero, what it meant to sacrifice everything you hold dear, just so the world could be save. But I also hoped that they would never have to learn.

After I had paid for dinner, I went back to my room, put on my pajamas and went to bed.

* * *

Robin's POW:

After we had beaten Mister Twister because Megan had tricked him into thinking he was fighting Red Tornado, we went back to Mount Justice to go over today's events again. Two mysterious events had occurred today: We had faced an evil android with similar abilities to Red Tornado and were saved by a mysterious hero. The first mystery was quickly cleared up, when we examined Mister Twisters mechanical remains. Mister Twister had been designed, specifically to destroy Red Tornado. The second big mystery of the day however bugged me in particular: Who or what had saved our butts back there? Was it maybe Red Tornado? Had he lied to us, when he said that he didn't intervene?!

Unlikely, since Red Tornado had only talked to us about 5 minutes before we were knocked out by Mister Twister, meaning that he couldn't have saved us, even if he wanted to.

But that meant, that someone or something unknown had helped us, they had never shown their face to us, and had just left afterwards. _Who or what would act in such a way?_ I thought to myself. But sadly, at least for now, we would not find the answer to this mystery, since we really had nothing; none of us even got a glimpse at who or what had saved us. We would just waste our time thinking and theorizing who or what had saved us. Though one thing still bugged me: If someone had saved us, _why_ would they just leave us afterwards? Would it not make more sense for that ominous hero, to maybe help us out further?

The answer just wouldn't come to any of our minds.

* * *

HAPPY HARBOR

September 6, 17:58 EDT

Danny's POV:

For the last two months or so, I hadn't really heard anything about The Team whatsoever, other than occasional stuff written in newspapers, which did its best to make me want to forget and leave behind my hero-days even more. I had _never_ gotten such positive feedback as these heroes did in the town I was from. As it turns out, the heroes were too busy dealing with villains in other locations and were apparently pretty successful at it.

I tried to tell myself that I didn't care, but that would be a blatant lie. These heroes have only been on the scene for 2 months, and they've already had a much better reputation than I could've ever had back in Amity Park. It slightly angered me that I had saved my city from 2 Ghost-Invasions, while they had done nothing that was even remotely comparable to that, at least not as far as I knew, and yet they got all the glory and were not thought of as menaces constantly, the way I was back in Amity Park.

* * *

I was working in my book-shop, just like every day, and I got ready to close up the shop like I usually do, when a girl with red and a guy with black hair ran into the shop at virtually the last minute and then walked up to the counter, who I realized only seconds later were two members of The Team, whose lives I had saved only a couple of months back.

 _What are they doing here?_ I thought to myself in disbelief.

I quietly sighed to myself and grit my teeth. I didn't want to have anything to do with these heroes, since it just caused too many memories to flood back; memories which I had tried to suppress for years and still caused me so much pain in the depths of my heart. But I had to ask them what I can do for them.

"So, what can I get you two?" I asked them after I had been silent for a little while, which they may or may not have noticed.

"Tomorrow, School starts again, so we thought we would buy some books that would be helpful to us for that" Megan answered

"Okay, sure thing. Just please make it quick. You can look around for another 15 minutes, then I'll have to close up the shop." I Implied.

After a couple of minutes they found what they were looking for, and came back to the counter where I was standing.

They put all of the books on the counter and paid for them.

Then, at least to me it seemed to come out of nowhere, the girl asked me a question I didn't have any intention whatsoever to answer, not then, not ever: "What's your name if I may ask?"

"D-Danny" I replied nervously.

"Nice to meet you, Danny. I'm Megan and this is Connor".

"Hey!" Connor greeted me.

"Hi!" I greeted back.

I looked at my wristwatch and the 15 minutes I had given them were over.

"Well, it was nice meeting you two as well, but I really got to go and close up the shop. I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave now". I told them.

Luckily, they weren't too upset about this. They had gotten what they wanted. They said goodbye and left.

After they had left, I put my head into my hands and sat down in front of the counter. Even this small conversation with these people was simply too much for me. It had brought back so many memories, just like when I had saved them, only ten times worse.

 _I was playing video games and hanging out at the Nasty Burger with Sam and Tucker, chatting about what had happened in School lately, about ghost-attacks and all the other stuff we could've talked about all day long. When I then arrived home, Jazz was studying for tests, reading books and working on one of her theses, like the one she had worked on with Dash, that "nobody is untutorable"_

 _Of course, that didn't apply to Dash._ I thought to myself as I chuckled and awoke from my flashback-like memories.

But of course they wouldn't leave me alone. They would never leave me alone again.

 _The memories started to come all up again, this time they showed my parents, working on one of their inventions, arguing each Christmas about whether Santa was real or not, which had always pissed me off and ruined Christmas for me, along with all of the other bad things that usually occurred around that time of year. Now I was missing even all of that, as hard to believe as it may seem._

I continued to sob for about 10 minutes, but then I managed to pull myself together and I then closed up the shop.


	3. Detective at work

MOUNT JUSTICE

September 7, 17:00 EDT

No one's POW:

Even two months after The Team was rescued by an unknown hero, the whole matter still bugged Robin. Then it finally occurred to him that maybe they could use the leftover-parts from the android that had attacked them, especially the cameras in the eyes, to maybe shed some light on what had actually happened.

Robin told Aqualad what was going on and what he was planning to do now.

He got the rest of The Team to assemble in the main room, where Robin had prepared a visual presentation for The Team.

"So why are we here again?" Artemis whispered to Kid Flash.

"Batman probably set his protégé onto something, just to keep us busy, I bet-" Kid Flash replied just as he was interrupted by Robin, who cleared his throat.

"So, as most of you may know, a few months back we were engaged in a battle with an android with similar Powers to Red Tornado that caused us a lot of trouble and would've almost killed us." Robin said as he set up his visual presentation.

"Now, there were two things about what happened, that had really bugged me for these entire two months that have passed since then. Firstly, who was behind the attack, and secondly, who the hell had saved us back there and then just left?! We are still trying to find out who was behind the initial attack, but we have made progress in the question as to who saved us". Robin continued.

He now started his visual presentation, a recording of the eye camera of the android from the day of the Attack.

"Here, we can see how the android had taken us all down and knocked us unconscious".

The recording showed Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Superboy being taken down by Mister Twister one by one through his eyes.

"That wasn't a pretty good start for you, Speedster, was it?" Artemis said mockingly to Kid Flash, when the recording shifted to Kid Flash who was thrown out of the building through the window by Mister Twister's attack which of course, made him look slightly ticked by this statement.

"Oh, yeah. And where were _you_? You weren't even on The Team yet, so you have no right to judge!" Kid Flash replied slightly angered, before he was again interrupted by Robin.

"As I was saying, this is how we all got knocked out. Now we shift to the scene we are all curious about: Mister Twister had us all unconscious, and he could've eliminated us. Now we see _why_ he didn't do it."

The recording now showed Mister Twister floating above The Team's unconscious members and preparing to strike them hard and severely. When suddenly out of nowhere he was bombarded with a green, strangely glowing blast. He stumbled back slightly from the raw force of the attack that had hit him. This prevented him from dealing a deadly attack on the member of the team. Afterwards, he was blasted with another ray, only this time with a light blue one, which froze his left arm. Lastly it appears that he got hit and thrown into the grass.

"Who or what was that?!" Connor asked.

"Well, duh! Someone who can make themselves invisible, is able to shoot green blasts and has ice-powers!" Wally replied half-sarcastically, half-mockingly.

Everyone quickly turned away from the screen, looked at Kid Flash and Robin paused the recording.

"What?!" Wally asked and shrugged.

"This isn't a time for joking-around, Wally!" Artemis said to Wally, while she slapped him across the face.

"Ow! Okay, I'll cut it out, geez!" Wally replied as he rubbed his sore face.

Robin shook his head, turned around and resumed the recording.

The others subsequently followed.

"So, what happened next, was that whoever had battled Mister Twister, seemed to have picked us all up, and brought us to safety on a nearby meadow". Robin said as the frames and images of the recording showed exactly what he explained, as it showed Mister Twister looking around obviously confused, as to where we had gone.

Everyone except Robin was simply stunned at this unknown hero's performance.

This unknown hero had saved them all, had risked their life, defeated Mister Twister all on their own, and all the while staying unnoticed.

"Now I know, what you're all thinking: This person that saved us is a hero, just like us, right? Well you probably thought wrong; how are we supposed to know that they are friendly? They may have saved us, but why wouldn't they show us their face, if they only had good intentions?" Robin theorized promptly.

"So you're suspecting, that the person who saved us, may be a possible threat? But why would they save us then if they only wanted to do something evil?" Megan stated in disbelief of Robin's theory.

"Maybe they wanted to save some other people and mistook us for them?" Robin replied.

"That would still not explain why we're still alive, then! They would've just killed us afterwards." Connor argued, as he walked up to Robin and looked him deep in the eyes.

"Now, now!" Kaldur split the two hot-heads up, before things could escalate. "Let's not argue about something we cannot even comprehend, you hot-heads. We have absolutely no idea who or what saved us and we also have no way of finding out!"

"Wait, 'Hot-Heads'… Maybe, we do!" Robin argued and walked over to the screen. "That hero may have been invisible this whole time, but Mister Twister's eye-camera, from where this footage was taken, apparently also recorded the heat-signatures from us and all the surroundings. Maybe we can find out about the identity of the ominous hero by comparing the heat-signatures to the ones of other meta-humans". Robin pointed out, as he promptly began to download the thermographic recordings from the camera.

And they indeed revealed something: The exact spot from where the green blasts and the other attacks came from, now showed a shape, similar to that of a young man, executing the attacks. However, something was slightly off: While the young man did radiate off a good amount of heat, it was far less than normal for a human, or meta-human. Even the 4 ice-villains that had attacked several cities on the 4th of July, or any other meta-human, didn't have such a low body-temperature.

"What on earth?!" Robin exclaimed. "No meta-human could survive with such a low body-temperature!" He pointed out confusedly, as the thermographic reading showed that the ominous hero had only a body temperature of 16°C (60.8°F), which was 20 degrees Celsius colder than the regular body temperature of most humans and meta-humans.

"So, who do you think that hero is?" Kaldur asked Robin.

"Ugh, I don't know. It doesn't make sense!" Robin groaned in realization that he just couldn't get behind this mystery.

"Come, on Robin. You tried your best. Let's focus on the next mission, shall we?" Wally said to Robin, which did manage to slightly cheer him up.

"Okay!" Robin said through gritted teeth.

But that wasn't nearly enough to calm him down. After several hours of intensive training and time alone, he went to bed, still slightly embarrassed and angry at himself.

 _Ugh, Batman would've already figured this out, I am sure of it._ Robin thought to himself, as if to emphasize just how frustrating it was to him.

 _Ah, well. Tomorrow's a new day._ He further thought and eventually managed to get some sleep.


	4. Homefront - Part 1

HAPPY HARBOR

September 22, 19:00 EDT

Danny's POV:

After eating a delicious dinner, I decided to go for a walk in the woods around Mount Justice, as I had done quite often already, since I got here. I had seen The Team go on missions quite often. So often indeed that I knew that they were using a flying spaceship, that was apparently able to become invisible, just like me. But I just walked onwards, as I passed by the bottom of the mountain, not wasting anymore thoughts on the group of heroes.

Suddenly I heard explosions coming from the mountain.

I gasped: The Team was in trouble. _I need to help them! But… I don't want to help them again, they are the ones who call themselves heroes, and they should be helping themselves! Ah, screw it, I'll take a look inside!_ I thought to myself, deciding whether or not I should help them, eventually settling on the most risky way, yet the one I knew deep inside, was right.

"Stupid hero-complex!" I added and exclaimed loudly.

"Going Ghost!" I shouted and transformed. The white rings appeared and turned me into Danny Phantom. I quickly took off and phased inside the mountain to see what was going on. As I got inside I stayed invisible and first observed the surroundings.

 _Whoa, this cave is quite the nice place._ I remarked astounded.

"Who are we fighting?!" – "Don't know, but we're sitting ducks by these tubes! Head for the exit!" I was reminded why I had come here by explosions and the sound of voices giving orders in the heat of battle.

 _Head for the exit, huh? Well I'm going to follow them._ I flew towards where the shouting and the explosions had come from, when I saw two red androids, both heading towards the exit, I quickly raced past them unnoticed to see that they were the ones wreaking havoc on The Team. Robin, who I was able to recognize since he was Batman's protégé, and the obvious new member in The Team, a blonde girl with a ponytail who I assumed was an archer, were prevented from exiting the cave and were then thrown back by a massive amount of water, then the other android attacked them with fire, that was being shot at them. They fled towards a training room, I quickly followed them.

I could not risk to intervene and be seen by two members of The Team. I'm sure they or their mentors had their fair share of data on my ghost-self and would certainly still recognize my ghost-half, even five years after the incident at the Nasty Burger. And with the Guys in White, who hadn't been as incompetent as they were the first time I encountered them, for quite some time now, who were still on my tale, any unnecessary risk in an attempt to save The Team would be foolish to take. But I could also not just simply let them die in their own HQ. I would have to think of a plan.

* * *

No one's POV:

While Danny followed them invisibly in close distance, Robin and Artemis were crawling through the air vents to escape the still unknown enemy. They barely escaped into a machine room. Red Inferno and Red Torpedo were however following close behind them, giving them a hard time with fire blasts and vast amounts of water that they launched at them. However they escaped through another access-tunnel back into the air ventilation system, right after Robin had carefully planted another batarang. Robin then made sure that they couldn't follow them anymore.

"Locking out cave's motion and heat sensors to keep the enemy from tracking us." Robin said as he executed said actions on his holographic computer, built into his glove.

"And I ask again: _Who_ is the enemy?!" Artemis asked, still confused about what had occurred ever since they used the zeta-tubes to get from Gotham City to the cave and had found themselves in pure chaos and disarray.

"Let's find out. Downloading cave security footage… there!" Robin exclaimed while working on his holographic computer, which now showed said security footage from this morning. The scene showed Kid Flash, Superboy and Miss Martian having a casual conversation; Kid Flash was working on his motorcycle, when he asked for a tool, which Miss Martian generously handed him over right way with her telekinesis.

Danny, who was still following behind invisibly, while trying to get a grasp of what was going on, just as desperately as Robin and Artemis, was watching the video feed as well, when he suddenly thought _Hmm, so Miss Martian has telekinesis? Maybe she could teach me…_

However, he quickly put this thought into the back of his mind, since the video now revealed more:

Aqualad now walked into the scene as well.

"I have been meaning to ask. Any problem juggling schoolwork and your responsibilities here?" He asked them all.

"Nope" Superboy replied casually.

"Juggling is just one of my many talents" Kid Flash replied. "Socket-wrench!" He said to Miss Martian, who again handed the correct tool to him immediately with her telekinesis.

"The daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge. Oh, but my first loyalty is always to The Team. … _This_ team, not the bumblebees." Miss Martian stated, a little anxious.

"Artemis starts school today. Do you think _she_ will have trouble maintaining her loyalties?" Aqualad asked carefully.

Artemis narrowed her eyes angrily at that statement.

"Nah, she'll manage alright. I mean, how much more hostile and annoying could she"- Kid Flash said, as the footage suddenly stopped after an explosion had destroyed the camera.

"What happened?!" Artemis asked, now with a worried face.

"The explosion took out the camera. I'll find another angle!" Robin relied as he switched to one of the other four camera angles.

It showed The Team being deliberately attacked by three giant streams that emerged from the sub-level of the cave's hangar, which had direct access to the Sea, and was thereby an ideal spot for an attack by Red Torpedo. However, the water quickly took out the second camera as well, Robin then shifted to camera number 3, but the same thing happened here, with only showing _some_ notable footage and then going blank, and so did the fourth and final camera.

"That's it, all four are dead." Robin stated, to which Artemis responded with a silent, sad stare. Robin, as soon as he noticed that, clarified his statement. "The cameras, I meant the cameras! I'm sure the others are okay. Just give me a sec to find the closest route to the hangar."

"Yeah, they're fine. They've all got superpowers. They can handle anything" Artemis said to herself, mainly to calm down a bit.

They continued to crawl through the vents until they entered the cave's library. They jumped down and raced downstairs, towards a series of bookcases.

"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases!" Robin pointed out to Artemis.

"Seriously?! Cliché much!" Artemis countered in disbelief.

"You should see the Bat-Cave!" Robin responded.

Robin looked around to figure out which bookcase provided access to the passage, when suddenly he and Artemis heard a sound of a footstep and prepared to meet the intruder. They then changed their minds and hid behind the bookcase closest to them. The sound became clearer and clearer as whatever produced it got closer to their hiding place by the second; it sounded like footsteps, but like ones from a machine.

 _"_ _Artemis, Robin!"_ A voice suddenly called, similar to Red Tornado's.

"It's Red Tornado!" Artemis said, truly convinced it was him. She quickly jumped out of her hiding place behind the bookcase.

She was quite relieved that Red Tornado was there, he could maybe help them fight off the – at this point still unknown – enemy. However that didn't last for long – she gasped when she turned to whom she expected to be no other than Red Tornado, turned out to in fact not be Red Tornado. It was a red android, however with a different set of arrows. It tried to grab Artemis, who now stood there, shocked and scared. Luckily Robin immediately took the initiative and pulled her away and under a table, which the enemy android immediately crushed with bare hands, but Robin and Artemis managed to slip away once again.

"Yes on the 'Red', no on the 'Tornado'!" Robin added when he had saved Artemis.

They ran along the bookcases toward the exit. There however, they were stopped by another red android, which stood right in the doorway, blocking their path. It immediately attacked them with fire blasts, luckily Robin and Artemis dodged them once more. Robin quickly climbed on top of one of the bookcases, and jumped over to the next one. Artemis followed right after him.

"Who… What are they?!" Artemis asked as she jumped from one bookcase to the next. Red Inferno meanwhile continued to launch fire-attacks at the two teens, which caused the water sprinklers to go off.

Robin didn't answer and instead concentrated on finding the entrance to the passage way. He jumped down, searching for the entrance, which was supposed to be activated by pulling a certain book in the case. Artemis stayed on top of the bookcase and shot arrows at the two androids, to no effect however, as Red Torpedo simply used the water from the sprinklers to shield himself. Then, Red Inferno punched against one of the bookcases, making the rest of them fall over like dominos. Just as the case behind where Artemis and Robin stood started to fall over and would have crushed them, something grabbed them from behind, and they started to feel a bit tingly all across their bodies, when suddenly the "tingly sensation" stopped, and in the next moment, they realized they were now in the secret passage way on the other side.

"We're in!" Artemis jubilated. "Did you find the switch to get us in just-in-time?"

Robin scratched his head. He hadn't done anything to allow them to enter, so why were they now inside the secret passage. He stood there for a couple of seconds, if that might've again been the work of the ominous hero that had saved them a couple of months ago. _Why does he not show his face if he's an ally?!_ Robin thought, as he was deep in thoughts, he was snapped out of it Artemis who shook him a couple of times.

"Yeah… I guess, I did." Robin responded seemingly confused. But what mattered now was that they had escaped them once more. They started to run through the passage way.

"Did you know Red Tornado had…Siblings?!" Artemis asked Robin as both of them were trying to navigate their way towards the exit.

"No." Robin said after which, he was about to take the next turn left. He was held by Artemis.

"So, now what?! Red Tornado is one of the powerhouses of The League. How are we supposed to take down _two_ of him?!" Artemis asked Robin, having absolutely no idea of how to defeat Red Inferno and Red Torpedo.

"Well, they did seem pretty user-unfriendly" Robin answered, having not many more ideas than Artemis.

"Don't joke! They…"Artemis tried to argue, but she was interrupted by the loud and clear voice of Red Torpedo.

 _"_ _Attention, Robin; attention, Artemis! You have exactly ten minutes to surrender, or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."_

Both of them stared at each other, not sure what to do now. They would have to come up with a plan or hope for a miracle. They decided to try and access the hangar, as Robin knew the way to get there through the passage way.

"We can access the hangar from here". Robin said as he and Artemis ran through the tunnel, when they suddenly noticed massive amounts of water coming towards their current position.

"…Or not!" Robin said, as soon as he noticed the water. That was the third time he had said it that day.

"Will you please stop saying that?!" Artemis said, understandably.

The water became more and more until the entire tunnel was filled up to the ceiling. Luckily Robin had a gadget with him that allowed him to breathe under water. Robin took in a couple of breaths before giving it to Artemis. She took in a couple of breaths as well, when suddenly Red Torpedo grabbed her leg. She tried to punch the android, but to no effect. Then Robin took one of her arrows and stuck into the eye of the android. The android let go of her leg and was thrown back a couple of meters by a couple of Robin's explosive batarangs.

They swam through the tunnel, until they reached the surface inside the hangar, which was partially filled with water. Here, the rest of The Team was imprisoned; Superboy and Kid Flash were stuck in a puddle of hardened metal, while the water tide kept rising, threatening to drown the two. Miss Martian and Aqualad meanwhile were doing even worse; they were trapped in a fire cage, created by Red Inferno. As an Atlantean, Aqualad was in danger of drying out, while Miss Martian, as a Martian, was already weakened and passed out from the heat and wouldn't survive much longer.

As soon as Robin and Artemis had reached the surface, they gasped for air. However they were immediately told to look out by Superboy, as Red Inferno threw fire at the two. They immediately dove back under the surface, to take cover from the blasts.

The came right back up to the surface, next to where Superboy and Kid Flash were stuck.

"Are you guys okay?" Robin asked, still a little out of breath.

"Forget us! Help Megan!" Superboy insisted knowing that she wasn't doing very well at that very moment, since she had passed out a couple of minutes ago. He and Miss Martian had been a couple, ever since their undercover mission in the Belle Reve Parish.

"Aqualad! Is she…?" Artemis screamed, deeply worried about her teammate and friend.

Inside the cage of flames, Aqualad was sweating from all the heat, but tried to hang on, and held Megan in his arms to try and keep her alive. He answered Artemis, struggling to hang on. "She is unconscious. I fear she- _We_ cannot survive much longer!"

Just as Aqualad had said these words, the heat vanished and everything went dark. A freezing chill gave now relief to Miss Martian and Aqualad. Aqualad turned his head to see that the cage had turned from a cage made up of fire to a cage made up of ice.

Aqualad listened closely, as outside the cage there were noises of metal being pounded and crushed. Suddenly a loud, growling wail was heard. Aqualad had to clutch his ears to avoid becoming deaf and even Miss Martian who was still unconscious, now woke up and clutched her ears with her hands.

Aqualad then took his water bearers and attempted to break out of the cage, to break through with one hit, but the ice could not be broken, even though it didn't seem to be very thick. He would have to wait until the ice had melted or to molten by whoever made the ice, but he instead decided to keep hitting the cage, in an attempt to break out.

* * *

Danny's POV:

I had kept on following the two, Artemis and Robin; I didn't want to reveal myself, if I could help it, and I, just as much as them, had to figure out what was going on first. I was impressed with their agility and intelligence, which kept them alive. _Hmm, maybe they_ do _know what being a hero is about_. I thought to myself as I floated invisibly next to the two members of the Team.

I followed them into some sort of library. _Seriously, their cave is bomb. They have a library, a hangar, and several training rooms! They have everything in here, don't they? We'll I guess that's what you get for being a protégé of a member of the Justice League._ I thought to myself as I was stunned – and admittedly quite a bit jealous– by the size of their library.

 _I mean, I was a hero too; I saved my town from 2 ghost-invasions, and what were the thanks that I got? I am always on the run, I have to always stay in the shadows, yet this stupid hero-complex is causing me loads of trouble, I have no family anymore, and everyone thinks I'm a menace._ I thought to myself, and sighed. It was still hard for me to think back to what once was.

The next thing I saw was that the two were hiding behind a book case after they had heard something and they had to stop searching for a secret passage way behind on of these bookcases. I stayed floating in mid-air, to see what had made that noise.

Out of the shadows, a red android with yellow marks on its body appeared. It apparently knew exactly, with whom it was dealing, as it referred to the two as Artemis and Robin.

Suddenly, Artemis yelled out. "It's Red Tornado!" She then ran out of her hiding place behind the bookcase.

 _Ah, so that's Red Tornado? Doesn't he look a bit different from this android?_ I thought, though due to my lack of knowledge on the members of the Justice League, I could've been wrong. I only somewhat knew Batman and Superman, while I didn't really know anything about the other members of The League, except some things I heard here and there in the News Reports which involved the members of The League, and of course their protégés as well.

As I was in deep thoughts about the Justice League and The Team, I was slow to notice how Artemis suddenly stopped as she looked at the android up-close. She stood there, like she was in a shock. The android then tried to attack her, but Robin was fast to drag her under a table, from where they continued to run away. As they were close to the exit, they were however stopped by another red android.

 _Another one of these?! Oh, come on! Well… at least now we know_ who's _responsible for the mess these two are in. However,_ what _occurred here, still remains unknown, for these two, as well as for me._ I thought, as this whole thing now made even less sense to me, than before – if that was even possible. If that android wasn't Red Tornado, who was he, and what about the other android? I figured, I should focus on helping Robin and Artemis get out of this situation, as they were forced to climb on top of the bookcases. They jumped from one bookcase to the next, to avoid the two intruders. As Artemis still stood on top of one of the cases and kept the androids busy with arrows, which they blocked with water and fire strikes, as I closely observed, Robin resumed his search for the secret passage way behind one of the bookcases.

Then one of the androids punched the case at the end of the row, causing it and the others to fall over like dominos. I quickly realized that they wouldn't make it in time and that they would be crushed beneath the bookcases. I quickly flew towards them, touched their backs, and turned myself and them intangible. I then gave them a slight push, so they would be able to enter the secret passage.

They were of course very confused once they were on the other side. Artemis however simply assumed that Robin had found the lever to let them in and had pushed her inside, as quickly as possible. Robin however, seemed much more suspicious. I realized that Boy Wonder might be more onto me, than I had thought until now. However, he soon focused on getting away from where the two were, to put as much distance between them and the androids as possible.

They ran through the passage to access, when suddenly Artemis pulled back Robin, to question him as to what they should do now, as Red Tornado was one of the powerhouses of the League and that is was questionable when suddenly a robotic voice told that they had ten 10 minutes left to surrender and that after that, the lives of their teammates would be "extinguished".

I was worried now: Even though I had sworn to put my hero-career to rest, and even after I had broken the promise I had made to myself, I still wanted to stay in the shadows, but at the same time, I wanted to help them, since even though I saw them as nothing more than a couple of teens playing heroes, I saw a lot of myself in all of them. Also my hero-complex was starting to once again get the better of me. I realized that I would have to save them, even if it meant to reveal myself.

Meanwhile, Robin and Artemis continued to run through the passage, to access the hangar from there. However, they were stopped by massive amounts of water coming their way. I was worried they wouldn't get out this situation as smoothly as before, but luckily Robin pulled out a device out of his utility-belt, that seemed to allow him and Artemis to breathe.

 _Seriously, what doesn't this guy have in his utility-belt?!_ I thought and wondered. My thoughts were quickly interrupted however by one of the androids, who pulled Artemis back by the leg. She tried to penetrate his outer metal surface of the android, which was however to no effect. Robin then quickly took the initiative as he put one of Artemis' arrows in the eye of the android, causing it to let go of Artemis and allowing Robin to get them away from there with a grappling hook, leaving back a couple of explosive batarangs, which threw back the android several feet. Because I was still invisible and intangible, I wasn't affected by the explosions and simply flew through the water which was much faster than swimming, following Robin and Artemis.

They managed to swim through the tunnel, after which they came out on the surface inside the hangar. They immediately gasped for air, once they reached the surface, however they didn't have much time to be relieved, because as soon as they reached the surface, they were told to look out, for very good reason, as they were bombarded with fire, causing them to immediately take a dive.

I flew up a little higher to get more of an idea of what was going on. Connor and another member of the Team, whose name I didn't know at that point, were stuck in a formation of hardened metal. They struggled and tried to break out as the water beneath them started to rise, threatening to drown them. On a higher platform, there was a cage made up of flames, with Megan and another member of the team being trapped inside. To my shock, Megan was unconscious and the guy holding her and trying to keep her alive, wasn't doing much better. The heat was obviously not good for both of them.

I realized I had to do something, if I wanted to save them. Even if I risked being seen by someone, though I minimized the risks of that by what I now did.


	5. Homefront - Part 2

I decided to first help Megan and the guy trying to keep her alive, by freezing over the cage. I lit up my hands with my ice-powers, though I managed to stay invisible, and fired on the cage. The ice immediately put out the fire and took its place. I meant to do this, since this now allowed me to finally turn visible again, as staying invisible for this long is really hard to pull off and I think I have never stayed invisible for this long before. The androids immediately turned towards me, and attacked me, however to no effect, since I just went intangible, to dodge their attacks.

"Hey, you hunks of metal, is this the best your programing allows?!" I said to the androids in my typical provoking manner, just like back then in the "old days".

 _Wow, I hadn't realized how much I missed my witty banter._ I thought to myself, as I happily thought back to old times.

Now however was not the time to think back to old times nostalgically, since Connor and the other member of The Team were still in danger of drowning, so I decided to first attack the android that was able to control water.

It came at me with a water blast, but I immediately froze the water with my ice-powers, grabbed it and threw it back at the android. I hit the android right on the head, causing it to malfunction and fall over. However, these androids were tougher than I had thought, and since I hadn't fought many non-ghostly foes before, I decided to not take any chances and use a power I had acquired right before my life had fallen apart. I took in a large breath, and let out a growling scream, materializing in green ectoplasmic waves coming from my mouth. The androids were immediately thrown back by the sound waves, with metal parts from the androids starting to be blown away from them and my wail acting like an EMP, shutting them down.

I kept on floating in mid-air, looking over the scene and smiling, as it felt good to be fully into a fight again after so many years. This was different however from my fight against Mister Twister, since here, my opponents were able to see me and hear my witty banter, giving me the same experience as in some of my fights I had back then and heck, I even enjoyed to be seen by my enemies, since for at least for a little moment, I didn't have to hide myself from the world.

When I was sure they wouldn't get back up, I now turned invisible, flew down to where Connor and the other guy were trapped, where right next to them Robin and Artemis had come back to the surface. I put my hands on the metal formation they were trapped in and turned it intangible. They immediately fell out of the formation and into the water, clearly confused, yet happy to be out.

 _Oh crap, I hope these guys didn't see too much!_ I thought to myself, since in all of my enjoyment of being in a real fight, after so many years of just running away and not-using my powers, I had stopped paying attention to my surroundings and who and who not was able to see me. Luckily, the cage that I had covered with ice, was still fully covered so Megan wouldn't be able to see me, once she woke up.

My ice-powers were pretty peculiar at times: My ice doesn't melt until I want it to melt, and it can withstand fire and great amounts of heat, without even melting a tiny bit.

I decided to leave. The androids were defeated, The Team's members all made it out alive, and I felt like I had done enough for today, especially since with every little thing I'd done more, I would've risked getting caught. I decided to only melt the ice I had put over the cage, as now they should've probably recovered from the heat. I lit up my hand in an icy-blue and pointed it at the cage. The ice melted in a split-second. Afterwards I left, since even though I was curious as to what was the deal with these two androids attacking Mount Justice, I was simply too exhausted for today to really worry about that. After all the ice had molten and the two members of The Team were alright, I left with a notable, yet still very small smile on my face.

* * *

No one's POV:

After Danny had left the cave and the androids had been defeated, the members of The Team were happy to be still alive, yet also confused. They looked over the androids as suddenly Red Tornado appeared inside the cave and asked them what had occurred. They of course replied that they had to endure "a visit from Red Tornado's 'extremely nasty' family". Red Tornado however argued that he wasn't aware he had one.

Unfortunately, Danny's Ghostly Wail that had acted like an EMP, started to wear off. When Red Tornado walked over to the two androids, lying on the floor, and attempted to touch one of them, a small spark of electricity appeared between Red Tornado and the other android. Suddenly Red Tornado turned around and started up several tornados, which sucked the air out of The Team's members' lungs and made them unconscious.

* * *

Several hours later, the members of The Team awoke, when the members of the League – who had come to look after them, after communications had broken down between The Watchtower and The Cave – patted them on their backs. They were still groggy from passing out, they weren't sure what had occurred. Had Red Tornado really attacked them? Why would he do that? And who had saved them?

All of these questions were mind-bugging to The Team and would bug them for the next couple of weeks. Especially Robin.

* * *

 _Meanwhile, just outside of Happy Harbor…_

The Guys in White had been chasing Danny for 5 years now, but every time they came close to capture him, he managed to escape. Now, after they had narrowed down the area of where Danny could be, after he had used his powers 2 months earlier, they gained hope again to finally capture him and satisfy their superiors. Now that Danny was using his powers yet again, the agents now drove with their specialized vehicles towards Happy Harbor, however, they stopped as soon as their detection devices didn't send any more data. Apparently Danny couldn't be tracked, as long as he remained in his human form and didn't go ghost.

However, the agents had once come so close to capturing Danny, that in an incident a couple of months ago, near a big forest in Pennsylvania, Danny's cover was blown, when they had used projectiles on him, that worked similarly to the Plasmius Maximus, as they took away Danny's powers for a certain amount of time. Danny, who was trying to get away from them, was hit by one of them, and immediately turned back into a human, in from of the agents' eyes. The agents however stopped their hunt at the very sight of this. They stood there frozen and perplexed for quite a while. Had they not been hunting a ghost? How could it be possible for someone to be both ghost and human?

All of these questions and a lot more went through their heads at that moment. That gave Danny time to just run away, after he had been standing in place for a short while as well. He was close to the forest, when the agents suddenly focused on their mission again, and started to chase after him. Danny ran through the forest, not looking behind him, desperately trying to get away from the agents. He eventually became exhausted; He leaned himself against a tree, while panting and covered in sweat, and looked behind him. The agents were close, he could hear what they were saying, however they ended up walking right past him, as Danny had luckily not just followed a hiking track, but rather he had ran straight through the forest.

After this, while Danny was journeying east through the forest for several days straight, after which he ended up arriving at Happy Harbor, the GIW had discussed the situation as it now presented itself, quite thoroughly. The agents now assumed that Danny Fenton had been possessed by the evil spirit known as Danny Phantom, to serve in this ghost's devious purposes, as a "human string puppet", as they morbidly called it.

* * *

"The enormous spike of Ecto-Energy has just faded, Operative O." Operative K said to his partner with a rather worried look on his face, as he looked at his ghost-tracking device. "Irrelevant. We now know the whereabouts of the Ghost-Boy. This time, we _will_ capture him, save Danny Fenton from him and then, this filthy and evil ghost will pay for the innocent lives that he ended!" Operative O said, as he narrowed his eyes at the sight of the city, which was just at the foot of the hill on top of which they stood.


	6. From bad to worse

Danny's POV:

After I got home, I ended up being in deep thoughts: Apparently, even though I had enjoyed reliving my hero-days, it had also brought back so many memories I tried to suppress for so many years: Of the good times I had with Sam and Tucker, how I had arguments with them, the sometimes rather annoying behavior of my parents, and my sometimes over-bearing sister. That brings up the question, had she ever known about my secret? I have had my suspicions ever since she thought I was going crazy and saw ghosts when there weren't any ghosts, when she released me out of the RV, and wasn't surprised to see my ghost-half only minutes later.

Also, I had received a note after facing the future versions of all of my enemies, which was crucial as to my escape from the ghost-zone. It was written in Jazz's handwriting on a headband which suspiciously looked like hers. But since I never had clarification on this matter, I could only speculate if she had known or not.

 _Ah, well. It doesn't matter now, does it?!_ I thought with a bit of regret and sighed. I had never told her… or my parents... or anyone. Tucker and Sam only knew because they were with me, when the accident happened. Though I had always wanted to. But like yeah, I was never able to, since I was afraid that my parents would reject me, or worse dissect me or "rip me apart molecule by molecule", as they always talked about doing to my ghost-half.

Afterwards I went to bed: I was however having the nightmare again, that I didn't have for some time now:

Sam, Tucker, my parents, Jazz and Mr. Lancer were tied to the container filled with Nasty Sauce, and Dan had grabbed me and held me in place while delivering dialogue directly at my face, which really hurt me deeply, along with the bruises my body was covered in:

 _No matter how much you try, no matter how much you want to deny it, you_ will _turn into me!_ He said to me in his deep, menacing voice, which will probably haunt me until the end of the time.

"No, I won't! I will never turn into you! Never!" I yelled back at him. But now it was too late: The Nasty Burger exploded, my family and friends were gone, my whole live once again blew up in flames right in front of me and I hadn't been able to save them.

I woke up right after that, screaming and panting. After some minutes, I managed to calm my breathing and relax. I got out of bed, as I didn't think I'd get much more sleep anyway.

I looked outside my window and saw that it was already morning with the sun rising just at the moment I was looking outside. Since I hadn't slept to well, I drank three cups of coffee together eating with my breakfast and got ready to go to work.

* * *

HAPPY HARBOR

September 25, 10:00 EDT

Robin's POV:

It had been three days, since our lives were almost extinguished. The day after we were attacked, we also found out that Aqualad had hidden his suspicion about there being a mole on The Team. That had of course pissed us all of, since the day before, we were attacked by Red Tornado. That, of course, led afterwards to an uncoordinated mission in India, but luckily Aqualad proved once again, that he was fit to be in charge, by making us finish the mission first, before we would decide whether he stayed in charge afterwards or not. After we had finished our mission, we confronted him once more: It turned out, that the clue Aqualad had received, was from Sportsmaster, which of course shocked us all, since Sportsmaster was not to be trusted. But I, and everyone else, understood that as the leader of The Team, while unlikely, he had to take this clue into consideration and pursue it, though it was probably just an attempt of Sportsmaster to tear apart The Team from within and he nearly succeeded.

While this turnoff events was resolved, all of the questions I still had, bugged me: Why did Red Tornado just turn on us? Who was this ominous hero, and why was it, that he would save us, and then always disappear without a trace? All of this didn't make any sense. The members of The League hadn't told us anything either. It was frustrating to go over the same clues over and over again, without getting any closer to uncovering the answers to these questions.

My teammates, despite everything that had happened, were actually quite calm and happy: Kaldur'ahm, Artemis and Connor were training with Black Canary, Wally was working on Connor's motorcycle, which was still broken, and Megan once again told me, she'd go to the bookstore again, she had gotten her books from, both for school and for herself. I nodded in understanding, and she left The Cave right afterwards. She had gone already gone there about 2 months ago, together with Connor.

* * *

Danny's POV:

I had been working behind the cash register of my bookshop for about two hours and a half that day. It was just the usual daily routine, since we usually didn't have that many customers, and today was no exception: There had been only one customer since I had opened up the shop, and that guy was looking for a book we didn't have in store, so he of course ended up buying nothing, as was common for an only regular-sized bookshop as ours in this city. It was the same annoying, yet oddly comforting routine I have had for the last few months now and to which I had gotten used to. I took a fifteen-minute break at 10, just like I usually did. I told my boss and stepped outside, to get some fresh air.

Outside, I leaned relaxed against the wall, took in a deep breath and thought back to what had happened in this city so far, to the moments I had saved The Team from danger, to the boring everyday routine, which yet still seemed better than a return to the life I had before everything went up in flames. _Would I even be able to ever let it go and go back to a life similar to the one I had before?_ I thought long and hard. I honestly didn't know: It was just too big of a risk, firstly because I had been chased by the GIW-agents for so many years, though granted, I had managed to always elude them and escape last-minute, yet I had no idea what they were up to after I had settled down in this city; secondly, and anything but to the least, I was also afraid of turning into _Dan_.

I had made a promise to my family, to never turn into him. And I was still desperately trying to avoid that at all cost, but it was getting harder and harder for me: My hero-complex and my powers forced me to go back to my hero-days every now and then. Heck, I had to go ghost and fly for a while yesterday, just to ease the pressure my powers had put on me. Whenever I spent a long time without using my powers, they would either cause my arms and legs to ache, or make me feel very stressful. I couldn't really decide which of the two usually felt worse.

I sighed at that thought. I would always have to use my powers and help people, even if I simply couldn't allow that to happen anymore… Not for my sake, and not for the sake of the world. I sighed at that thought and said to myself as consolation: "Well, at least things can't get any worse from here, can they?" I couldn't have possibly known how wrong I would end up being.

* * *

 _A quarter hour later…_

No one's POV:

"Are you absolutely certain that the spectral readings indicate that the Ghost-Boy is inside that bookshop, Operative O?" Operative K asked his partner while they were observing Danny's bookshop from inside the empty building across the street with binoculars. "Yes, there is no doubt. We have reports from the neighbors, fitting the description." Operative O responded.

As soon as they would see Danny leave, their fellow agents on the roof of the bookstore would swing down, secure the store, and capture Danny; for questioning and "lots and lots of really painful experiments", as they had always planned to do, once they would grab hold of Danny. Their plan was very well thought out: It even involved the possibility of others interfering with their operation.

* * *

Danny's POV:

After my break was over, I immediately returned to working in the shop behind the counter. It immediately returned to the same dull, but oddly comforting routine. However, suddenly I recognized that a new customer had entered the shop.

It was Megan. Ever since she had first bought a book in my shop, she had come back to buy more a couple of times since our book-section was be pretty diverse. I had gotten to know her a bit by now, but I hadn't told her anything about myself or my home town and I didn't intend to do so any time soon.

Luckily, I was never forced to, as because of her secret identity, she hadn't told me much about herself either. I had of course known that I wasn't just talking to a normal girl, but rather to a member of The Team. I knew, because the only thing that was different about her whenever she was Miss Martian, was that her skin would be green instead of the skin color she had now. Though, that brings up the question how _no one_ ever recognized me in my ghost-half, even though the only thing that changed about my appearance in my ghost-form was that my hair changed from pitch black to pearl white and that my eyes changed from blue to green. But it probably has to do with the fact, that the inhabitants of my town back in Illinois weren't exactly geniuses and also maybe since there was always a little shiny, white shade around me, whenever I went ghost.

She came up to the cash register and put a book in front on the counter that she wanted to buy. The book had the title "Lord of the Flies". Oh, how many memories that brought back in that very moment; memories of how, whenever Mr. Lancer got mad, he would shout out book titles as exclamations. _Oh right, he died in the explosion as well._ I thought to myself. It had been so hard to even think back to what had happened, I must have totally forgotten what had happened to Mr. Lancer. Guilt overcame my thoughts: I had forgotten about someone whose death I was responsible for.

"Danny, are you alright?" Megan suddenly said to me, which immediately snapped me out of my deep thoughts.

"Uh, yeah… I'm alright." I managed to stumble out. She had of course noticed that my focus wasn't entirely on the conversation we had.

Luckily she didn't attempt to dig deeper into what was up with me, as I was still not up to talk about it with anyone, especially not to a member of a team of superheroes, because it just teared open too many wounds when I tried to talk about it with someone.

"So, yeah that'd be twelve dollars for the book, Megan." I said to her, attempting to escape this rather uncomfortable and awkward situation. She paid for the book and we talked for a bit about how she was still pretty unfamiliar with the city, as was I, despite the fact that I'd been here for several months, so probably longer than her. _I guess, I just didn't really get to see that much of the city yet, since all I really have done so far was to go to work every weekday, taking my usual route, and also a bit of jogging in the woods around Mount Justice. But other than that, I haven't seen much of the city yet, probably also since living in a hotel means that I don't even have to go into the city and get food._ I concluded while being in deep thoughts.

This, in combination with my lack of friends and not a particularly big need to socialize with anybody after the accident – I still hadn't managed to move on and I also wanted to stay hidden – were probably the reasons for that.

Despite all this, it was nice having a conversation with someone, that wasn't just limited to the regular "selling-stuff-routine" type of conversation I have had plenty of times by now, but I was still acting very carefully, as I just didn't want to talk about certain things from my past.

But like all good things, the conversation had to come to an end, since Megan told me that she needed to leave. I went outside with her, and we shook hands outside. I waved her goodbye and afterwards I waited in front of the door of the shop for a little while, as it would soon by lunch break anyway. Just as I turned around and pushed the door open to get back in the shop, I suddenly heard a somehow familiar voice shout. "Now!"

I suddenly saw a few dozen GIW-agents coming out of the building across the street and running towards me. Some more were roping down from the roof of the bookshop, as I realized to my dismay. In not even 10 seconds, they had all formed a big circle around me, all of them pointing Ecto-Guns at me.

"Danny Fenton a.k.a. Danny Phantom, you are under arrest for murder, non-compliance with government organizations and possessing the Fentons' child, under subsection 4a of the Anti-Ecto Federal Control Act!" An agent, who I successfully recognized as Operative O told me bluntly.

My thoughts were now more in disarray than ever: _Crap, no-no-no! This can't be happening! Not now. Okay calm down, Fenton, there's no going back from here, they know your secret, so you either fight or let yourself be captured._

I quickly tried to go ghost; the white rings began to wash over my body, but I was immediately hit by a bullet in the leg, stopping my transformation. _Oh, no! Not this again!_

It was the same bullet as the one that had hit me the last time I had encountered them, because it felt exactly the same as last time.

Now I was in serious trouble. I wouldn't be able to use my ghost-powers in a while. That is, if I would have had a while.

"Now! Grab the ghost-child!" I heard one of the agents yelling. I tried to dodge their attempts to catch me in a net, that was similar to the ones I had been trapped in multiple times already, but after dodging the first two nets, I was eventually caught inside the third one. They had accomplished what they had tried to do for 5 years but had failed each time; capturing me.

I was now panicking: They had me captured after all these years, and yet I didn't know what they were going to do with me now. But whatever it was… it couldn't be good. The look on my face showed a lot of despair, which to my further despair caused the agent in front of me to smile. That of course freaked me out and caused me to loudly scream for help. But to no avail. Either no one wanted to help to help me, or no one was able to help me. _I guess it doesn't matter. It's over for me._ I thought to myself depressively as the agents had now put me in an ectoranium cage, from where there would be no escape for me, as I realized. I shut my eyes as if to unsee everything bad that happened to me in the last few minutes. "This is it, Fenton. You have lost. No family, no friends, no life and now not even any freedom!" I said to myself, first angrily, but then slowly dropping in volume as my anger transformed into hopelessness.


	7. Unspeakable Horrors and a spark of hope

**Here it finally is. Sorry that I had to keep you guys waiting for so long, but I finally updated my fanfic. I also feel the need to explain, what took me so long to update: Well, first off, this is my very first fanfiction and English is also not my native language (Meine Muttersprache ist Deutsch – My native language is German). Just to scale, for the first 6 chapters, I need more than 3 months (!), so yeah xD. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the next chapter, and I hope I didn't leave you on as big of a cliffhanger as last time.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7 – Unspeakable Horrors and a spark of hope**

WASHINGTON, DC, GIW HEADQUARTERS

September 26, 08:20

Danny's POV:

After I had been captured and was put in an Ectoranium-Cage, I sobbed for quite a while, before I got more and more tired and eventually fell asleep. Suddenly, I was awoken by the screeches of tires. Wherever they were taking me, we had apparently arrived there now. The back door of the vehicle was opened and I saw three GIW-agents, all now coming inside the vehicle, where they picked up and started carrying the cage I was in. I was brought to a room that was entirely painted white, with an examination table in the middle. It was pretty easy to guess what they would do with me now: Through the bars of the cage, I was given an injection of a substance that immediately started to paralyze me. My eyes started to close right away as I drifted off.

When I woke up, I found myself unable to move, as I tried to move my right arm. I had been strapped onto the table I had spotted earlier, which proofed my theory about the purpose of the table right. I tried to turn intangible, but to no effect, not because I was shocked with electricity, like usually when I was unable to turn intangible, but because I was simply unable to, which really surprised me. Did it have to do with the strange collar I was wearing? Was it blocking out all my ghost-powers? Obviously it must have, since all my other powers didn't work either, when I tried to use those as well.

I also realized that I was back in my ghost-form, apparently they had found a way to control my transformation, while I was asleep. The agents who were now standing around me, were wearing protective suits, probably since whatever they were going to do to me; it was going to be a mess.

"Well, well, how does it feel, you filthy ghost-scum? Nowhere to run anymore, no one to save you, and now being here with us?" One of them said to me, while standing very close to me.

I immediately answered in my typical manner, while trying to hide my fear of them. "Not good, but probably still better, than if I had to put up with your probably-stinky breath!"

The agent of course wasn't too pleased with my answer. "Ah, we still haven't lost our sense of humor, have we?" He said, while he was handed a dangerous looking Ecto-Weapon from another one of the agents. "Well, we'll take care of that very, very quickly!" He said, as he rammed the weapon into my chest, and started to rip it open with the green-glowing blade that had now popped out of the weapon.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed. I could feel every little pinch, every inch of the blade as it tore open my chest. The blade was made out of Ectoranium, which started to literally burn my skin, and melted my bones. The pain was greater than anything I could have ever imagined. "Stop! Why are you doing this to me?!" I asked as streams of tears erupted from my eyes under the unimaginable pain I was experiencing.

The agent stopped for a moment, which gave me time to stop screaming for a bit, though I still winced and breathed heavily because the pain was so unbearable. The agent came right up to my face again, grit his teeth and looked me directly in the eyes as he answered. "Why?! Because you're a ghost, just an ectoplasmic cluster of post-human-consciousness! You know no feelings, no mercy and no morality, which is why we are treating you as such. You were the ghost who murdered the Fentons and then took control of their child. You simply get what you deserve. Besides, no one can help you now, and we have official permission from the government, to do with you, whatever we view as necessary."

I trembled from his statement: Was this whole thing simply punishment for not saving my friends and family? What about all the people I saved and bad guys I stopped? Was that all meaningless now?

So many questions ran through my mind, until my head suddenly cleared when the agent asked out of the blue: "Do you have anything to say to your defense you pathetic little worm, before we continue our little… _procedure_?" He laughed sadistically at the last word.

That's when I finally snapped: I had spent my days, ever since I got my powers, risking my life for others, without asking for anything in return, and despite all the immeasurable suffering I had gone through during my entire life, I had never turned my back, to people who needed me. And what did I ever get in return?! Nothing but hatred, mistreatment and despise from others.

I grit my teeth and shouted at the agent in anger: "You know what?! Yes, I do have something to say! I spent the entire last 6 years, trying to help people, even people like you, who do not give a crap about my feelings or well-being, without asking for anything in return! And what do I get?! Nothing but bad press and unjustified, inhumane punishment!"

The agent was now slightly unamused, to say the least. He then looked me directly in the eyes and said with a surprisingly calm tone in his voice: "We know all tricks of ghosts trying to fool us into thinking they're just as kind-hearted as humans. Do you think we'd fall for that? You're even more pathetic and weak than I thought!"

"Enough talking to the ghost! Simply continue with the experiments as scheduled." Another agent, apparently their superior, interrupted him as he suddenly entered the room. The other agents immediately saluted him.

The superior then told all of the other agents, to also continue with the experiments and to not just stand around and do nothing. The superior then left the room again, and the agents now looked at a clipboard, completely ignoring me. _Probably a checklist with all the experiments I am going to have to undergo,_ I thought immediately at that moment. The agents then made some preparations – probably for an experiment – which of course turned my anger I felt before, back into fear.

The look on my face now clearly spelled out horror, as I started imagining all the scenarios of what they would do to me. I couldn't hide my fear any longer.

And I was right, the experiments continued. The agents kept on cutting my chest open, no matter how much I cried and begged for them to stop. They continued, until my upper body was covered with a big Y-shaped cut, which now started spewing blood – slightly green as it was mixed with ectoplasm. I now realized just _what_ they were going to do to me; they were going to _dissect_ me.

The thing I had feared the most, back when I was hiding my identity from my family, would now happen to me after all. I wanted to scream my pain and my fear away, but I couldn't; the events had already scarred me so much. Too much pain, too much exhaustion.

For the moment I would still somehow be able to put up with all the torture I was being put under, since the battles with Dan and Dark Pariah, and my constant encounters with the GIW before I had arrived in Happy Harbor, had toughened me up quite a bit over the years. But I could see very clearly, that I would sooner or later reach my physical and mental breaking point.

* * *

After they were done dissecting me for the day, they simply threw me in a cell, which looked like it didn't even hold up to sanitary standards of the dirtiest prison in the world, with handcuffs that were put around my wrists before that. Both the handcuffs and the collar felt like they were cancelling out all of my ghost-powers. I attempted to somehow break the collar with my cuffed hands, but both it and the handcuffs immediately passed an electric shock through my whole body, stopping me from trying that ever again. Any attempt of escape seemed futile.

My body was still aching and burning from what they had done to me. There was a big, gaping hole in my chest and belly which seemed to not heal very well because it was caused by an ectoranium blade, but it had at least stopped spewing blood and was already starting to close. Apparently they hadn't turned off my healing factor, as they had done with my other powers, though probably only so they could later on test my limits and do the same thing again, that they had done to me today.

Sad, angry, afraid and very depressed, I started to slowly fall asleep in one of the corners of the cell. My body needed the rest, after having to endure something like that. Sadly, this was only the beginning of my journey into madness and unknown horrors.

* * *

MOUNT JUSTICE

October 2, 23:00

Megan's POV:

The last few days were pretty overwhelming: The League had to deal with giant plants attacking multiple cities, including Metropolis and Gotham City, while we were attacking the Injustice League's base near Bayou Bartholomew. The fight against them was hard, but we eventually succeeded in taking out their base and capturing the members of the Injustice League, who were apparently behind all the attacks The Team has had to deal with so far; from the android from the very first mission I was a part of, to the attack in India involving Gorilla Grodd.

So we were of course very happy as we now thought the secret society of supervillains that was behind all of the attacks was gone forever. We all spent the evening having fun for once, despite having to of course attend the mandatory training session with Black Canary before we were able to finally enjoy our evening. After everyone had already said "goodnight", after the exhausting day we had, I decided to start reading the book I had bought in Danny's bookshop, since I wasn't as tired as the others yet. I opened the book, but discovered that the title in it said "Gulliver's Travels", a book that I had sadly already read multiple times, while the title on the outer cover said "Lord of the Flies". _Oh, this must've been a misprint or something, since Danny accidentally gave me the wrong book._ I thought to myself and decided to go to the bookstore and bring back the book tomorrow to tell Danny of the mistake that had happened. I was sure he'd let me return the book and pick another one instead. Since I was already a little bit more tired than before, I decided it was time to go to bed.

* * *

HAPPY HARBOR

October 3, 10:00

After a training session in the morning, I went into town and walked towards the location I knew Danny's bookshop was at.

When I entered I was slightly surprised to see Danny's boss approach me and ask me: "Do you know where Danny is? He didn't come to work the entire last week and hasn't appeared today either. He also won't answer his phone, which all just isn't typical for him." I shook my head and said: "No I don't know where Danny is either. I just came here to return a book, since it has the wrong title on the cover. Why? Did something happen to Danny?!" He merely shrugged in confusion. "I don't know." He said, as he started to look really worried about Danny, which in turn made me worried as well. Had something happened to him? "Have you called at his hotel and asked if he's there?" I asked him. "Yes, I have, and I also went to the hotel myself about an hour ago, to check if he was there. But no sign of him. It's like he just… disappeared." He told me bluntly. "Well, I can't help you with anything either. The last time I saw him is when he sold me this book about a week ago." I told him, as he sighed.

It was obvious that he'd come to care quite a bit for Danny, and wasn't just upset that his employee didn't show up for a while. But despite this rather confusing situation and his obvious frustration, he tried to stay professional and offered me a full refund for the book I wrongly received. I declined, as right now finding Danny definitely mattered more than a stupid book. I said goodbye and told him as I left, I'd contact him, as soon as I had any more information about where Danny could be. I immediately went back to Mount Justice, to tell my teammates exactly what happened.

* * *

No one's POV:

When Megan arrived back at Mount Justice, she immediately planned on telling Connor what had occurred. She figured that the others wouldn't understand and just see it as a waste of time and effort, while Connor already knew Danny as well as Megan did.

Telling Connor wasn't too hard: He immediately understood that something bad might've happened to Danny. He had been to Danny's bookshop a couple of times as well, both with Megan and alone, and he had gotten to know Danny quite a bit, though of course Danny hadn't told him anything about his past either. So Connor didn't know much about Danny, just as Megan.

That was the biggest problem they had: They knew next to nothing about Danny; they didn't know his last name, where he was from, if he had any friends or family; barely anything. After discussing it with Connor for a bit, Megan decided that they would have to tell Robin. He was the detective in The Team and Batman's former sidekick. If he couldn't find any information about Danny, then no one could.

Megan and Connor walked to Robin's room, where they interrupted him during a training session.

Connor cleared his throat to get Robin's attention. Robin, who was facing away from the door, and hadn't noticed that Megan and Connor had come in, now turned around and stopped his training. He walked up to the two and asked: "Oh. Hi, Connor, Megan, what's up?"

Megan immediately replied: "A friend of ours, Danny, who works at the bookshop me and Connor went to, has apparently been missing for about a week now, and we could really use your help in finding him. Will you help us with that?"

"No problem. Do you know anything more about this 'Danny'?" Robin immediately asked in return.

Megan sighed slightly, rubbed her left arm and replied: "Okay, since he wasn't telling me much about himself, I took a teeny-tiny look inside his mind. But the only thing I found out was that his last name was 'Fenton', I swear! His mind was not easy to look inside; it was like he wasn't even really alive. All of that never really made sense to me, and it honestly still doesn't."

Robin and Connor of course sighed slightly in frustration at Megan's statement, since Aqualad had already told her, that her telepathic abilities were an invasion of privacy here on Earth. Though Robin decided to let it go for now, since without the information she pulled out of his mind, even _he_ would not be able to solve this mystery and find Danny without at least his full name. Robin then politely told Connor and Megan to leave, since he now immediately got to work to find out things about Danny that would help find him.

He started by simply typing "Danny Fenton" in a search engine on the computer in his room, only to find out, that there were 40 Danny Fentons, alone in the United States. Robin scratched the back of his neck nervously and said to himself: "Oh boy, that's going to take me a while..." He eventually pulled himself together and continued with his research.

 **So, yeah. Sorry that I had to end the chapter here, but it seemed like the smaller cliffhanger than the one I could have also gone with. You probably won't see me update this story for a little while, since there are some important tests ahead, that I'll need to study for during the next 4, 5 weeks or so (My birthday is also going to be pretty soon xD ). But who knows, maybe if I study well, I might surprise you guys with another chapter. But with that, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you once I go back to writing. I hope you all have a wonderful day/night and I'll see you all very soon hopefully :-)**


End file.
